This commentary (www.tlrp.org/tel/publications/)
is the first from the Technology Enhanced Learning phase of the Teaching and
Learning Research Programme (TLRP-TEL). The phase was launched in 2007, and currently
comprises eight interdisciplinary projects with funding of around £12 million.
The programme is funded jointly by the Economic and Social Research Council and
the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. TLRP-TEL aims to
produce a series of commentaries throughout the life of Technology Enhanced
Learning, which is currently scheduled to last until 2012.
The past five years or so have seen
growing excitement within the educational community about Web 2.0 technologies.
‘Web 2.0’ is an umbrella term for a host of recent internet applications such
as social networking, wikis, folksonomies, virtual societies, blogging,
multiplayer online gaming and ‘mash-ups’. Whilst differing in form and
function, all these applications share a common characteristic of supporting
internet-based interaction between and within groups, which is why the term
‘social software’ is often used to describe Web 2.0 tools and services.
Web 2.0 marks a distinct break from
the internet applications of the 1990s and early 2000s, facilitating
‘interactive’ rather than ‘broadcast’ forms of exchange, in which information
is shared ‘many-to-many’ rather than being transmitted from one to many. Web
2.0 applications are built around the appropriation and sharing of content amongst
communities of users, resulting in various forms of user-driven communication,
collaboration and content creation and recreation. Commentators now talk of a
‘read/write’ web, where users can easily generate their own content as well as
consuming content produced by others.
For example, Wikipedia is distinct
from the Encyclopaedia Britannica Online because it is an open document that is
created, updated, edited and refereed by its readers, thus deriving accuracy
and authority from ongoing group discussion and consensus rather than the word
of one expert. Similarly, Flickr could be considered as distinct from earlier
online applications, such as Ofoto, in that users’ photographs can be made
accessible to all and can be commented upon, labelled, categorised and edited
by whole communities of users, making it a photograph-sharing rather than
photograph-storage application. Given the importance of creation, collaboration
and communication to the use of these technologies, educationalists have been
quick to point out the potential of Web 2.0 for supporting and enhancing
learning.
Yet despite valuable early
contributions to the Web 2.0, much of the discussion within the education
community has been speculative. This commentary sets out to challenge the
confident portrayal of Web 2.0 by many educationalists in terms of an imminent
transformation of learning and teaching. Careful thought has therefore been
given to how technologists, educators and learners can best shape the
fast-changing internet in the near future. It aims to explore how education can
change the web, as well as how the web can change education.
The commentary is
edited by Neil Selwyn, with contributions from Charles Crook (University of
Nottingham), Diane Carr (London Knowledge Lab), Patrick Carmichael, (University
of Cambridge) and Richard Noss (LKL/TLRP-TEL).
Richard Noss (Director, TLRP-TEL)
London Knowledge Lab, University of London
Neil Selwyn (Editor)
London Knowledge Lab, University of London
